| | By John Clayton
ESPN.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Mike Heimerdinger was given one mission once he was hired as the Tennessee Titans' offensive coordinator -- put the air back in Air McNair.
For strategic reasons, quarterback Steve McNair played a deflated brand of football under former offensive coordinator Les Steckel. Game plans were overloaded with numbers of plays, but many of them resisted the pass. The offense, geared mostly around Eddie George's running, was conservative and predictable even though it was good enough to get the Titans to the Super Bowl.
|  | | Steve McNair has the green light to throw downfield this season. |
"I was told two years ago not to have too many picks," McNair said. "I think my limit was supposed to be eight a year. I didn't take shots when receivers had one-on-one coverage."
"I know he got frustrated at times last year," wide receiver Yancey Thigpen said. "I don't know if it was the play-calling or what. I saw the frustration. Sometimes, I saw where we could go out and be very productive, but then we would go into a stall mode. That won't happen this year."
A wide receiver coach schooled in Mike Shanahan's West Coast offense, Heimerdinger had to breathe some life into the passing offense, but that wasn't easy. Head coach Jeff Fisher wanted to keep the structure of the offense the same. The numbering systems stayed the same.
Unable to change the big picture, Heimerdinger dinged away at the little things. He found nuances in receivers' route running that he didn't like. He changed them. He told McNair to throw caution to the air at times and throw downfield.
"Maybe they were conservative with Steve last year with his back surgery and didn't ask him to go deep," Heimerdinger said. "I had to teach him not to be afraid to throw it deep. Early in camp, if a guy was open, he was afraid of throwing a pick so he didn't make the throw. I challenged him by telling him that I needed to see him make the throw so we could keep certain plays in the playbook.
"On one certain play, he connected three times by throwing it on the money."
Heimerdinger also worked with the receivers. He made them square their shoulders as they run routes because he thought that they were tipping off their direction by the way they ran them. He made sure they were more consistent in running routes to the right depth.
His other mission was adding formations in order to create matchup problems. Heimerdinger is looking to get certain receivers one-on-one against cornerbacks. He wants McNair to easily spot the single coverage and make his throw.
"Against Cover 2 (zone) or Cover 4 or some other coverages, defenses knew the way that they played us that we'd have to come inside with the throw," McNair said. "Now we are exploiting the outside. We are taking advantage of throwing the ball more downfield."
Being conservative worked. But to repeat as an AFC champ, the Titans knew they had to come up with some different approaches to stay ahead of the field. McNair went to the Super Bowl last year throwing only 12 touchdown passes in 11 games.
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We know we are
going to be unstoppable. The only thing that can stop us is ourselves. ” |
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— Steve McNair, Titans quarterback |
"Everything is still going to spin off the running game," Titans coach Jeff Fisher said. "We want to increase our play-action passing game and throw the ball more traditionally. This is not a West Coast offense, but we want to throw the ball more efficiently."
Adding Carl Pickens to the mix of receivers gives the Titans a swagger to their passing game. In passing situations, their five skilled players are Pickens, Thigpen, Kevin Dyson, Pro Bowl tight end Frank Wycheck and running back Eddie George.
"We know we are going to be unstoppable," McNair said. "The only thing that can stop us is ourselves."
Pickens feels as though he had gone to NFL heaven after years of losing with the Cincinnati Bengals. He loves that the Titans have the attitude of a winner.
"The thing that bothered me about Cincinnati is that I tried to create a positive atmosphere and then I became a cancer on the team," Pickens said. "We had no sense of direction and no leadership. I felt, 'OK, let's try to change this.' Your teammates say, 'We're with you, Pick.' Then when it came time to stand up, I felt like I was alone. Very few guys had my back publicly."
With the Titans, all they are asking Pickens to do is run down from the split end position and make plays. He's already shown in the exhibition season he's hard to handle on the fade route. He's one of the better jumpers in the league, so teams will be forced to double cover him in the red zone.
"We're probably going to throw more touchdown passes," Fisher said. "Carl caught a fade in the first preseason game and the tight end was doubled. If they double Carl, then the tight end is one on one."
Fisher is even allowing Heimerdinger to bring over the attitude that makes the defense great. Attack. Attack. Attack. Take no prisioners.
"Our main focus is to put points on the board," Thigpen said. "We didn't have that killer instinct last year. This year, it's like, 'Hey guys, we don't want to go up 21 points and sit on the ball. We want to go up 21 points and double that."
Suddenly, the Titans offense has an "Air" about it.
John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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